Extra 5992 West, a Santa Fe "Director's Special", passing milepost 363 (584 km), at 6:59 p.m. The Chicago to Carlsbad, New Mexico, train was pulled by SDFP45 locomotives #5992, #5991 and #5990.

This is my favorite of all the railroad photographs I've taken. I'd waited most of the afternoon for this train and had plenty of time to think about how I was going to photograph it. My primary camera was a Pentax KX fitted with a zoom telephoto lens. After making the planned exposure, I grab my Pentax MX and made this snapshot. It turned out to be the best.

NOTE: Two of these three locomotives survived. Originally part of an order of nine FP45 locomotives built by Electro-Motive Division, in December, 1967, to pull the Santa Fe's premier passenger trains. In January, 1997, the lead unit, #5992 was donated to the Illinois Railway Museum. The second engine, #5991 was sold to the Wisconsin Central Railroad in 1995. It was repainted in Wisconsin Central livery and renumbered #6652. The locomotive was eventually sold to Larry's Truck & Electric and scrapped in April, 2005. The trailing unit, #5990 was the last FP45 remaining on the roster when donated by the BNSF to the Oklahoma Railway Museum in December, 2001. It was the class-engine for the series. Until the arrival of newer Super Fleet locomotives in the early 1990's, the FP45's were the flagship locomotives of the Santa Fe Railway.